


AC20 Day 23: The Strongest Between Us

by The_Rose



Series: Rose's Advent Calendar 2020 [23]
Category: Warcraft - All Media Types, World of Warcraft
Genre: But Illidan is there for her, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Maiev keeps suffering, Maiev's curse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:35:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28272477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Rose/pseuds/The_Rose
Summary: During an invasion of the Sentinax, Maiev and her Wardens are facing terrifying opponents, and yet, Illidan and his Illidari are nowhere to be seen despite that they promised to help.
Relationships: Maiev Shadowsong/Illidan Stormrage
Series: Rose's Advent Calendar 2020 [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036257
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	AC20 Day 23: The Strongest Between Us

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!
> 
> I don't have much to say about that one, I mostly had the idea of the second part of the fic (in a way, way angstier context tbh) and I just crafted something around it.
> 
> Enjoy!

“Get down! Felbats incoming!”

After shouting, Sira ran back under the protection of the rocks, joining back the rest of the Wardens. Meanwhile, Shalis was relentlessly firing arrows at the flying demons, taking them down one by one with only one shot that she was enhancing by whispering a prayer to Elune. The demons’ corpses fell on the ground, scattering the ground troops that themselves were falling under the weapons of the other Wardens.

They had been tasked to take care of one of the invasions of the Sentinax, as the demons were getting stronger and that the cursed ship was now able to open portals on two different places on the Shore, and unfortunately, they had already mobilized their strongest adventurers to clean a beach, and it was with no hesitation that Maiev had decided to lead the fight in the second zone that was being invaded. Illidan and his Illidari also made their way onto the battleground, using their flying ability to reach the ship and find a way to sabotage it enough so they would go back to only one zone of the Shore being invaded, while promising to secure the sky for the Wardens.

“Obviously,” groaned Maiev, slicing an imp in two and glaring deadly at the Felbats. “Illidan is as useless as usual.”

Those demons were almost the most dangerous of all, as they had one really good and lethal way to get rid of their prey, and it was by grabbing them, and then, fly as high as they could into the sky before dropping whoever they were holding. Before you would realize it, that poor person was ending as mush on the ground, and in the case you were being grabbed, the only solution was to kill the demon as fast as you could before it would bring you to a lethal height. Or hoping that you had a good grasp on your own abilities to survive the fall.

The worst was that those creatures, while being extremely lethal, were also incredibly sneaky from something as big, and the best idea to dodge their grasp was to hide. And Maiev hated that strategy, but she couldn’t afford to lose anyone and they had no other choices but to rely on Shalis taking them down as they would have to wait for the Illidari to finally show up and fight them in their own environment, allowing the Wardens to stop caring about them. Yet, it had seemed that they were still fighting inside the ship, and that they hadn’t realized that the Legion had released the Felbats.

“Shalis!” Yelled Maiev at the Warden, forced to be out in the open to shoot at the demons. “How are you holding up?!”

Upon hearing her leader, the woman quickly jumped to take cover and allowed herself to take back her breath, as, after all, she had been praying and praying constantly to enhance her arrows, and if she wasn’t doing that, there was no way that she would take down the monsters in one shot.

“I should be good,” she yelled back, checking her surroundings. “But there are more and more of them!”

“Don’t take risks! Kill as many as you can but if you need to retreat, do it!” commanded Maiev.

Shalis quickly nodded and once again took a deep breath as she notched an arrow in her bow, and then, she jumped away from her hideout and fired a white-glowing arrow that went directly into the heart of one of those demons. The body crashed loudly on the ground, but the woman didn’t even smile at it and instead, had already notched another arrow and it began to glow as she kept whispering her prayer. Again and again, without a stop.

“Warden Shadowsong,” interrupted a voice, catching her attention.

“What is it Halee,” asked Maiev, looking at the Warden in training.

“I’ve been specializing in cast spells and I could take down some of those demons without getting close,” the young woman explained, showing her hands glowing with druidic powers. “I demand your authorization to assist Warden Darkhunter.”

Maiev quickly glanced at the trainee. It was her trial by fire, as she had shown after months and months of training that she was fit to join the rank of the Wardens, and that battle was a test to see if she was deserving of the real Warden’s armor along with the title. The Warden was trusting her recruit, as her presence on the battlefield was proving, and she was actually liking the initiative and she knew that Halee would be a really good addition to their ranks, who were desperately in need of new blood after the attack on the Vault. And also, Shalis was probably going to run short of her arrows, and if they were being submerged by the demons, it would be the end of the Wardens.

“Authorization granted,” nodded Maiev. “Now, go and clean that sky!”

“I won’t disappoint you!”

Making sure that nothing could attack her as she left the safety of the hideout, Halee quickly began to climb on a rock to allow her a better overview of the battlefield, but more importantly, on the sky and the flock of Felbats storming into the sky, blocking the view of the Sentinax. Taking a deep breath, the woman concentrated the powers of a more powerful Moonfire in her hands, and finally, as if she was throwing the spell, aimed for one of the flying demons. Hit right into its chest, the monster fell on the ground and Halee smiled proudly as her hands once again glowed with the color of the moonlight, ready to take down more and more demons and prove her worth as a Warden.

On the ground level, the others Warden kept fighting a pretty big influx of small but numerous demons, mostly imps and Felstalkers, all seemingly enjoying the despair that was emanating from some of the fighters, afraid that they were being outnumbered. But they didn’t count on Maiev perfectly leading the fight, and well-decided to finish it for good, and thus, for every demon that her Wardens were taking down, Maiev was killing three and soon, the demons realized that it was useless to get closer from the hideout of the women.

“We’re almost done with the Felbats,” yelled Shalis, once again in her own hideout to be able to communicate with the others. “The Sentinax had stopped to spit them out!”

“Are there any traces of the Illidari or Illidan?” asked Maiev.

“No, I have no idea where they are!”

“Keep an eye on it, we need to know where they have disappeared!” added Maiev, cursing once again Illidan for his uselessness.

“Understo –”

A scream interrupted them.

“Halee!” Shalis screamed back, jumping in the open, notching an arrow.

On the other side, the trainee was being taken away by a Felbat who had sneaked on her by behind, and it was now flying back as high in the sky as it could. But Shalis knew how to deal with those demons and immediately fired the arrow, knowing that Halee would survive that fall, especially if they could catch her before she hits the ground. The archer looked at her enhanced arrow, flying right towards the flying monster but suddenly, another Felbats showed up, putting itself on the path of the arrow. While it was falling dead on the ground, the trainee kept being dragged in the sky and despite that Shalis was really fast to fire her arrow, the beast was faster to fly up and the Warden couldn’t attack anymore without risking the life of the young woman.

On the ground floor, Maiev looked with horror as her trainee slowly disappeared from her sight with how high the demon went and she became desperate as there was almost no way to save her now. But Maiev had never been someone to give up, and even less on the people she had sworn to protect, especially after that she had failed so many times. Jumping away from her hideout, she didn’t care about the flying demons left and she locked her sight on where the monster had disappeared. There, as she stopped caring about her surroundings, she bounced on her feet, fixing the sky without moving much.

Then, as soon as she heard the long scream and that she saw a black point falling back towards the ground really fast, the Warden stopped thinking and jumped away. With an inhumane speed, combined with her blinking ability, Maiev calculated the path of the fall of the trainee and once she got close to it, she added to her momentum by jumping on the rocks around the place and she blinked, again and again to reach Halee. Around her, Shalis’ arrows were taking down any Felbats that were trying to stop her. Sure of her calculation, Maiev blinked one last time into the sky, her arms wide open to grab the trainee and to bring her back to safety.

But Maiev had underestimated the speed of the fall.

As she blinked, she found herself a few feet above Halee, who kept screaming, screaming the Warden’s name, and falling, falling even faster as the seconds were passing. And as Maiev realized it, that she went too high and missed her objective, her brain and instinct betrayed her. She looked down, at the trainee getting dangerously close to the ground, and her body stopped moving but for the gravity slowly pulling her back towards the ground. And with those few seconds of inactivity, despite that she blinked towards the ground as fast as she could, before she could reach the young woman, the sound of the impact echoed through the battlefield.

“Halee!”

Maiev screamed, and yet, she knew that it was too late. With one last blink, she rolled on the ground, next to the body and she ran to it, her hands already glowing with a soft white light of a healing spell, but as soon as she saw it, she knew that nothing could be done. Even if the trainee had been wearing an ersatz of the Warden’s armor for her training, it hadn’t been enough to protect her body from the impact of her fall and Maiev wouldn’t stop herself but to close her eyes at that sight.

She had failed one of them once again.

“Maiev, we’re ready to leave for the Isle of the Watchers.”

The Warden slowly turned her head towards Sira, and behind the woman, she could see the litter covered by a sheet covered in Kaldorei’s symbols, clearly hiding a body from everyone's sight.

“I’m sorry but I can’t come,” Maiev said, crossing her arms over her bust. “I need to stay to make my reports to Khadgar and Velen so they know what happened.”

“But the ceremony?”

Maiev took a deep sigh and put a hand on Sira’s shoulder.

“I really wish I could come, but my responsibility towards the Army of Legionfall must outrank the Wardens right now,” she explained, a shadow passing over her eyes, hidden under her helmet. “Unfortunately, I think that you already know the ceremony by heart and I trust you to do it well. I might not be there physically, but my thoughts will be with you all.”

“If you are sure of yourself, then I will do it,” could only reply Sira. “But can we count on you tomorrow?”

“Yes, of course, I’ll be there,” assured Maiev.

Her second in command quickly nodded and turned away, explaining to the other Wardens that Maiev wouldn’t be there, and they all left, carrying the litter to reach the Isle of the Watchers where they were going to bury Halee and honor her as a Warden for her bravery on the battlefield. As Maiev looked at the flying carriage, wincing over the fact that it was the tamed Felbats of the Illidari that were transporting the body, she took a deep breath and turned around, slowly walking towards the Command Center to join with the other commandants.

As she stepped inside the building, thankfully functional for that week, she kept her helmet instead of removing it as she would always do, and she got welcomed by Khadgar, whose face was already telling her that he knew about the loss of the trainee. On a side of the room, Velen was busy supervising two more healers as they were busy taking care of Illidan. The hybrid was sitting on a chair, an ugly scar over his face who continued on his arm as he had probably parried an almost deadly hit, but as soon as he saw the Warden entering the room, he jumped on his hooves, despite the protest of the healers, and walked towards her.

“Maiev! Listen I’m sorry, but they trapped us into the ship and we couldn’t get out and –”

The Warden raised her hand in front of him, as a way to ask him to shut up and she continued to walk to the table where Khadgar was busy taking notes of the elaborate trap that the Legion had set up for them that day. Once that the woman was in front of him, he raised his head and looked at her.

“We attacked Felfire Pass as expected and we mostly met with small demons,” she began to explain, her voice as cold as usual, almost empty of any emotions. “They were clearly outnumbering us but they weren’t strong enough to be a problem, and we took them down quite easily. Then, the Sentinax sent us Felbats but we didn’t get single aerial support –”

“Maiev –” Illidan tried to talk again.

But the woman raised her hand once again, snapping her fingers, and the metallic sound echoed through the room, while Velen was struggling to get Illidan back on the chair instead of spilling his blood everywhere in the building.

“We had to deal with them by ourselves,” she continued, completely unfazed by Illidan’s tentativeness to explain himself. “We did better than we could have expected thanks to Warden Darkhunter, but unfortunately, we have to deplore the loss of Trainee Halee Swiftwind who was assisting Warden Darkhunter. The Wardens are already taking care of her while we are talking.”

Khadgar looked away for a split second, feeling the loss as if the woman had fought with him, and he discreetly sighed before going back to what was really essential at that moment.

“Alright, thank you,” the Archmage nodded, taking a quick note about the trap, and then, looked at Maiev once again. “And you? Are you alright?”

They all heard the Warden snickering as she turned around, her cloak whipping behind her.

“We are in a war, we lose people every day,” she only said.

And then, she took the decision to dismiss herself and she left the Command Center. Not really knowing what to do, she walked through Deliverance Point, her head held high, yet empty of thoughts. Slowly, her steps guided her towards the tents, and soon enough, she ended in front of her own tent and she entered it. As soon as she had stepped in it, she stopped and suddenly, she dropped on her knees.

Throwing away her helmet, she cried once again, this time loudly as she couldn’t contain it anymore, and she took her head between her hands, crouching and she kept crying, unable to get the tears to stop running down her face. No matter how many times it was happening, it was as painful as the first time, and this time, it felt even worse as she hadn’t lost anyone since the attack on the Vault, and she had hopes that the curse was over. But no, it wasn’t, and she cursed herself to still not be dull about those deaths. Why did it have to stay so painful?

Despite that she was still crying, she heard the fabric of the tent moving, but before she could do anything, she felt two powerful arms holding her around her waist and her back hit something. Then, she heard Illidan’s voice, softly shushing her.

“It’s alright, it’s going to be alright,” he whispered.

At those words, Maiev cried harder and Illidan hugged her harder, protecting her with his entire body. Then, he slowly made them lay down and he kept Maiev in his arms, gently brushing her arms with his thumbs, moving as less as possible.

“Why?” she cried. “Why do I keep failing them?! Why can’t I save them?! Save one person!”

“Sometimes, you just can’t do anything.”

“But it’s always happening to me!”

Illidan sighed, looking sadly on the side and as he realized that he couldn’t bring up the facts that actually, Maiev had been saving countless lives for years and years, as he knew that she wasn’t able to see the big picture for the moment, as she was too busy concentrating on the few people she couldn’t save.

“I’m sorry, we should have intervened,” he said instead, expecting the Warden to agree and once again blame him for the death of one of her Warden.

“No, you couldn’t have done anything,” she said instead, surprising Illidan. “I couldn’t save her myself! I completely failed her and I couldn’t grab her in time!”

Grabbing Illidan’s arms, she dug her nails in his skin without realizing it, but Illidan said nothing and brought her closer to him. He hadn’t been able to give her the aerial support that they needed earlier, but he was going to give her the emotional support that she needed right now. Especially that he had thought that the Warden would throw a rightful tantrum at him once they would meet after the fight, accusing him of everything wrong in the world once again, and yet, she had said nothing against him. And it was when he saw her crying while giving her report, not letting anything show through that he realized how affected she had been by that death.

“I swore to protect them! To protect my Wardens with my own life, but I keep surviving and they don’t! Why is the universe so cruel to me? What have I done to deserve that?!”

“Nothing, you are just a fighter amongst the others, and unfortunately, that life always brings death around us, we cannot escape it,” he told her, bringing a wing over them to cover her. “You don’t deserve it, but that’s a risk that we all take when we go on that path.”

He brought a hand to her face and gently brushed away the tears that were still running down from her eyes.

“But the fact that it’s affecting you that much, show us your greatest strength. You are still capable of caring about the others and having empathy for them, and thus despite experiencing those horrors for so long,” he sighed, remembering all the people that he had cared about and that he had been forced to see them die. “I wish I could still cry for everyone I lost.”

She stayed silent, but for a few hiccups as she wasn’t done crying.

“You’re the strongest between us,” he finally told her, smiling sadly.

Maiev closed her eyes, and slowly, she turned around in his arms to face him, and there, she buried her face against his skin, still a few silent tears falling from her eyes.

“Don’t leave please,” she begged.

“I don’t plan to.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Tomorrow: The last story of the calendar, and it'll be a nice little fluffy and warm story.
> 
> See you tomorrow and every day until Christmas with a new fic!
> 
> \----  
> Unfortunately, English isn't my first language so if someone is interested in becoming my beta-reader for the language, hit me up on my Tumblr!  
> Or if you just want to talk about WoW, my fics, someone else fics, or anything, you can still hit me up there!
> 
> https://thewritingof-therose.tumblr.com/
> 
> or on Discord
> 
> https://discord.gg/nvKggwc (An Illidan/Maiev Discord)
> 
> Later!
> 
> (Comments are welcomed and appreciated :D)


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